Simply put, cloud computing is a set of pooled computing resources delivered over the internet. The cloud delivers a hosting environment that doesn't limit an application to a specific set of resources. Depending on the platform, an application can scale dynamically and increase its share of resources on-the-fly.
With the advent of Cloud Computing, there is no more reason for you computing for individual users can be hosted in a professional data center instead of on a desk.
The best way to understand cloud computing to think of the world as a large virtual data source. Anyone who pays a fee can access its services anywhere in the world. It allows for fast retrieval of data.
Cloud computing is a new technology that delivers many types of resources over the Internet. Therefore Cloud computing could be identified as a technology that uses the Internet as the communication medium to deliver its services.
If you want to use the Cloud system to store some extra information on the internet, you can make an Amazon account and they give you 5 gigabytes of space.
Grid computing by definition is the collection of computer resources from multiple locations to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involves a large number of files. Cloud computing is a general terminology used for the delivery of hosted services over the internet.
I found three Cloud Computing magazines you might be interested in. They are; Alltop - Top Cloud Computing News, Cloud Computing Journal and TMC's Cloud Computing Magazine. I hope that you find these choices helpful.
Virtual machines are used in this hosting process and mostly used in cloud computing services. Hosted EMR can make you familiar with this.
Yes the cloud provider does not have access to your data. The data is available only through the login credentials and access keys that are with you. Thus the data ownership is of the consumer however the data is hosted in cloud providers datacenter. Just like an individual is responsible for his data on facebook but it is hosted by facebook.
Yes, there are definitely free options available if you want to try out cloud computing for business purposes. Most of the major cloud providers offer free tiers that let you experiment without paying upfront: AWS Free Tier – 12 months of free services (EC2, S3, RDS, etc.) with limited usage, plus some services that are always free. Google Cloud Free Tier – $300 free credits valid for 90 days, plus always-free products like Cloud Functions, Firestore, and Pub/Sub with usage limits. Microsoft Azure Free Account – $200 credits for 30 days and free limited access to services like Azure App Service, Functions, and Storage for 12 months. IBM Cloud – Lite plans with free quotas for databases, AI, and Kubernetes. Oracle Cloud Free Tier – generous always-free services including 2 VMs, block storage, and load balancer. For a small business or startup, these free tiers are usually enough to build prototypes, test applications, or even run small workloads at no cost. Just keep in mind: the “free” part has limits (usage quotas). Once you exceed them, you’ll be billed. So it’s a good idea to monitor usage closely
Any computer website that has cloud computing on it should be able to keep you updated with news about cloud computing technology. I recommend Microsoft.
There is a good explanation of cloud computing at http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031. I think you can learn most of what you need to know there.
Cloud computing is better then normal grid computing as its cheaper to buy, use and maintain. Cloud computing can offer web hosting also which grid computing can not.